CBSE Class 12 English Functional Sample Paper 2013 Set A

SECTION A:READING

1. Read the passage given below and answer the questions that follow: 

(1) It was the year 2003. As a part of my efforts to understand schools and children of all ages, I happened to visit a Bangalore school that had a preschool section. I followed the standard strategy of being a "fly on the wall," observing, absorbing, and when the situation was conducive, asking questions to students, teachers and administrators there.

(2) The four-year-old in the junior kindergarten class was smart and highly communicative. She was very forthcoming with her responses. I asked her what she liked and what she did not like in general. She loved her school, her teacher, her mother, and her grandmother. She did not like it when her elder  brother fought with her. She also did not like it when her grandmother told her bed-time stories!

(3) This was rather strange, since I had believed that most children liked stories told by the elders in the family. So I was wondering why she did not like her grandmother telling her bed-time stories. After some patient interaction, the little girl told us: "When she tells me the stories, I go to sleep. But she wakes me up and asks me - the moral of the story!" I was stunned by her unexpected explanation. What struck me personally was the girl's ability to explain her discomfort. I also began to think about several misconceptions that elders have about issues related to the next generations.

(4) Such as that we believe the stories are told in order that children would understand the moral of the story. Or that they go to the school to learn. Or that employees go to office to work.

(5) Is it correct to assume that children go to school only to learn? They could be going there because that is what is expected of them by their parents. Or because they like to be with their friends in school. Or for the one teacher who tells them nice stories. Or they like the playground and the sports facilities.

(6) The children are not even at a stage to understand the "moral" of the story.They may understand it cumulatively through several stories - which would be sunk in several layers of their understanding, only to emerge later. Or their moral of the story would be different than what we understand it to be. Whatabout the pure enjoyment of the story by itself? What about several other uses of the story - such as understanding the language, relating to the  characters, imagining the ethos, the feelings, and so on ?

(7) As in many spheres of life, one of the biggest challenges in the educational system is that we have a first generation of leaders and educators that decide the education policy, the second generation of teachers that are responsible for facilitating education for the children who belong to a third generation.

(8) Understanding third-generation children is a complex process and needs special efforts on the part of all concerned, including parents.

(9) The third-generation children are fearless, articulate, independent, rational (capable of a high degree of analysis on "what is right and wrong" for them), impatient, non-hierarchical, and have wider methods of accessing knowledge. This requires a radically different organization of schools and classrooms, including in terms of the seating arrangements, the teaching-learning process, methods and material, and the quality of interaction with the children. Parents and teachers must jointly understand that comparing situations with their own childhood and therefore expecting certain types of responses from the children, will not work.

(10) Children and their future must be at the heart of any decisions about curriculum, classroom practices, examination system and school management system.

(a) On the basis of your understanding of the passage, answer the following in your own words:

     (i) Why did the little girl in the kindergarten not like the stories told by her grandmother? 

     (ii) What is the writer's opinion about children being told stories with morals? 

     (iii) What according to the writer is the problem with the education system today? 

     (iv) According to the writer what should be the focus of modem day school system?   

(b) Pick out words/phrases from the passage which are similar in meaning to the following: 

     (i) watching without being noticed or observed (para-1)

     (ii) willing to co-operate (para-2)

     (iii) a mistaken belief or a misunderstanding (para-3)

     (iv) a distinctive character, belief and culture of people (para-6)

Please refer to attached file for CBSE Class 12 English Functional Sample Paper 2013 Set A